1888. 

 COUNT RUMFORD* 



ON a bright calm day in the autumn of 1872 — that 

 portion of the year called, I believe, in America the 

 Indian summer — I made a pilgrimage to the modest 

 birthplace of Count Kumford. My guide on the occasion 

 was Dr. George Ellis of Boston, and a more competent 

 guide I could not possibly have had. To Dr. Ellis the 

 American Academy of Arts and Sciences had committed 

 the task of writing a life of Kumford, and this labour of 

 love had been accomplished in 1871, a year prior to my 

 visit to the United States. In regard to Kumford's 

 personal life, Dr. Ellis's elaborate volume constitutes, 

 if I may so speak, the quarry out of which the building- 

 materials of these lectures are drawn. The life of such 

 a man, however, cannot be duly taken in without 

 reference to his work, and the publication by the 

 American Academy of Sciences of four large volumes of 

 Kumford's essays renders the task of dealing with his 

 labours lighter than it would have been had his writings 

 been suffered to remain scattered in the magazines, 

 journals, and transactions of learned societies in which 

 they originally appeared. 



The name of Count Kumford was Benjamin Thomp- 

 son. For thirty years he was the contemporary of 



1 From a short course of lectures delivered in the Roya? 

 Institution. 



